This day in 1913 in The Record: Jan. 11

Friday, January 11, 2013

Saturday, Jan. 11, 1913. Pre-empting a strike by kitchen and dining-room staff, the manager of the downtown Rensselaer Hotel fires 55 employees tonight, hours after agreeing to their demands, The Record reports.

Proprietor John McGlynn hears the workers' demands early this evening. They echo the demands made by striking hotel workers in Albany. "The cooks and waiters demanded one day off each week, and more pay," our reporter explains. They also want better food for themselves, complaining that " the food furnished them was poor, and that it consisted largely of leavings."

McGlynn is the president of the New York State Hotel Men's Association. His response to his workers' demands is sure to be watched by employers and employees throughout the state. As it turns out, McGlynn is several steps ahead of his staff.

"Mr. McGlynn, anticipating trouble, visited New York last week and entered into negotiations with an employment agency to provide him with colored help," our writer reports. This afternoon, before he hears the workers' demands, he "visited the office of the commissioner of public safety at the city hall and requested that a special detail of police be assigned to the hotel before midnight."

After the workers speak their piece, "to protect his Saturday night patronage, Mr. McGlynn signed the demands immediately." After the kitchen closes for the night, McGlynn summons the kitchen and dining-room staff to his office.

"When the help reached this spot it was paid in full and discharged. No trouble of any kind occurred and the detail of police present were not called upon to perform any service."

The former Rensselaer employees were "mostly foreigners." With their departure will come changes in the Rensselaer menu. "The menu at the hotel in the future will carry the names of all American dishes and the family names attached to some of the food by the force of foreign chefs will be missing."

The new Rensselaer staff is expected in town tomorrow morning, and McGlynn expects no disruption of his Sunday trade.

AT THE MOVIES. Every so often a Record writer will review an outstanding moving picture playing in Troy. This weekend's highlight on the big screen is It Is Never Too Late to Mend, an adaptation of a Charles Reade novel playing at the Lyceum Theater.

This Edison Company short subject is praised by our writer as "one of the finest products of motion film studies every presented in this city. Despite its brief length, the picture "portrayed Reade's gripping novel [about a man seeking his fortune in Australia] in faithful detail." Neither the director nor the actors are mentioned in the review.